Well, that escalated quickly. In his play The Crucible, Arthur Miller borrows the Salem witch trials as a platform to examine how little it takes to turn neighbor against neighbor. In love with the married John Proctor, young Abigail Williams spreads a bit of gossip about John’s wife Elizabeth. What follows is a hair-raising account of […]
Read MoreIn which Erica falls into Bear Lake
It happened just after this picture was taken, actually. I was standing this way and then suddenly I was a few feet shorter, one leg having plunged into Bear Lake. Mom and Dan assumed that I was up to my hip in snow — the lake was completely covered in snow and there were many […]
Read MoreNew Belgium brewery tour
We’ve been saving this one for my mom’s visit: New Belgium offers (free!) tours of their brewery. Neither Dan nor I are beer drinkers, but we both enjoyed the Tartastic and Le Terroir sours. Mom — already an avowed New Belgium fan — found a new favorite in their 1554. See if you can spot mom […]
Read MoreWinter Storm Kimberly has landed
^^ That’s her line, not mine. My mom’s in town! For the first time! Mom wanted to spend this first trip checking out Dan and my regular haunts, so we have shown her around many of the places I’ve already written about. Today we woke up to snow. (Finally! Finally!!) Dan, mom and I took […]
Read MoreHow not having cable TV landed me in a bakery
In hindsight, it was unavoidable. Dan and I don’t have cable television. We haven’t for years. We subscribe to Netflix and Hulu, mostly, and rent movies on iTunes. Recently I’ve been wanting to watch PBS’ Great Performances series — but we don’t have access to it. Last night Dan subscribed to Rocky Mountain PBS for […]
Read MoreWings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum
Ad astra! Dan and I had errands to run just outside of Denver — during planning I noticed we would be immediately next door to Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum, which we had not visited yet. My family will understand exactly how homesick I became for the museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base […]
Read More(I can’t believe they let me into) Social
Located under Old Town Fort Collins is a trendy speakeasy-style bar that somehow my crotchety self was permitted to enter. Our friends Kate and Justin have been singing Social‘s praises since our arrival to Fort Collins 12 weeks ago. (12 weeks?!) They booked a sitter and invited us along. Social is so popular that a […]
Read MoreCurt Gowdy State Park
When Dan and I took our First Day Hike at Lory State Park, we quizzed our guide Mick about his favorite parks in driving range of Fort Collins. Mick is not only involved in trail maintenance in parks across the state, but he is also an avid mountain biker. Without so much as a pause […]
Read MoreCheyenne in pictures
Downtown Cheyenne, Wyoming is not huge, but I find it a wonderful source of visual inspiration. I’ve saved the best for last — this mural by Jordan Dean is my single favorite thing about Cheyenne.
Read MoreCheyenne Candy Store Emporium
Tucked in the heart of Cheyenne, Wyoming is a startlingly authentic 1950s candy counter. Leave it to Dan to discover something as marvelous as the Cheyenne Candy Store Emporium. The shop made me miss the collection of Coca-Cola merchandise my dad used to collect as a hobby. As we were leaving, I asked the proprietor […]
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